AMD AND IBM said that both firms will use silicon on insulator (SOI) on their 90 nanometre processors.
This process is called "dual stress liner", which the firms claim improve n-channel and p-channel transistors on chips, by "stretching" silicon atoms in one transistor and "compressing" them in the other.

Why does it matter? The chip firms say that it will boost speeds of chips by up to a quarter using the same power levels as non-SOI chips.